Hey everyone. Thank you for your comments so far. It's great to see the topic active as of lately. I have started to play the maps since last week and finished about 10 maps so far.
Anyway, here is my review for the first four maps (one 2001 map and three 2002 maps). I decided to do them in chronological order for both authors, so I can better combine my reviews and save the maps requiring source ports and the TCs for the end, with a few exceptions along the way (you will see what I mean next time).
As usual, I played in Duke3D v1.5 in DOSBox 0.74-3 on CGS skill, while getting all kills and secrets. In case of most Reginukem's maps, I put them in a REGNUKEM folder alongside the midi included with CMC map, so that meant I got to hear that map's midi instead of the original dethtoll when playing Reginukem's maps.
Emergency Room
The first map by Reginukem, released near the end of 2001, is pretty nice and is a humble effort. I really like the idea of a hospital-themed map for Duke Nukem 3D using the stock atomic assets. It ended up being fairly enjoyable and got just the right amount of balance and length. Of course I took my time to explore and find the secrets because most of them are pretty well hidden that I had to consult Mapster after I was done with the map in order to find them.
Gameplay isn't very challenging early on but it ramps up in difficulty later on that you will get some good fights. Health, Armor and Ammo are all provided in large quantities. After all, this is a hospital themed map, so health pickups should be very common (on top of the occasional water fountains and toilets showing up) and even armor pickups are plentiful in the map, so you should never have problems running low on either of them. Ammo is provided in adequate quantities for the later weapons, especially the Devastator being the first weapon you pick up and you are expected to use it against Commanders that will appear as soon as the map starts.
Interestingly, I didn't get many ammo drops (pistol, shotgun, chaingun) from the enemies early on but I was still able to maintain the ammo nicely when alternating between the weapons 2-4, so I wasn't left only with explosives or the Freezer ammo, all of these I tend to save for the stronger monsters. I didn't acquire the Shrinker/Expander until I found it in a secret place after finishing the map and I also didn't find the RPG until later in the map but the Devastator and Freezer were great help when I came across the stronger monsters.
There is a Mini Battlelord encountered halfway through but he won't be much of a problem to take out. There is also a Mini Overlord as Quacken pointed out but he has only 1 HP, so he dies instantly upon taking damage. Funny that when I came back to the main hallway, the trip mines were set off and the Mini Overlord was already dead.
Oh yeah, speaking of which, you should be careful with a couple traps happening at some points, mostly the trip mines and the explosive traps. There is also a pipebomb lying down near the end after taking an elevator but there are also two sentry drones waiting for you, so what you want to do is to grab the pipebomb immediately and take out the sentry drones with the Chaingun. I imagine the pipebomb was put there so that if the sentry exploded, you would have also died from the bomb exploding. Thankfully this didn't happen to me but it was quite clever how it was set up that it can catch players off-guard.
I didn't have problems coming close to dying (though my health fell in to 40-50 range about twice) but I had one funny thing happen to me near beginning that I got shrunk once by the protector at start when he somehow shrunk me in the water and I was able to escape by jumping out of the water, as shrunken Duke can still jump when he is at the water surface.
But then I loaded save and I didn't deal with the Inactive Protector until I got some weapons first. And speaking of which, progression isn't too difficult to figure out and the access cards aren't really hidden when compared to many other user maps. The Blue Card at start is placed in the dumpster where you can also find a very handy armor pickup, so be sure to explore.
There are FOUR secrets to find:
1) In the bathroom with the red card, jump through the fake mirror to find a box of Pipebombs.
2) In the first saloon (near the door where you insert the red card), press on the monitor to temporary reveal a secret containing an RPG. Note that this will also spawn a few monsters outside.
3) In the corridor with the saloons, press on the switch near the handicapped sign (which also controls the elevator) to unlock a nearby door. Take the elevator down to reach the secret area guarded by a few monsters (trooper, enforcer and two sentry drones). After taking them out, collect the various health/armor goodies.
4) This secret is quite cleverly done and requires multiple steps to get to it:
-First, you need to use the Yellow Card on the main door, which will also unlock the broken door you may have seen earlier (near a broken yellow access switch).
-Second, once you did that, go back to the broken door, as it can now be opened. It is guarded by a few commanders and protectors.
-Third, after taking them out, grabbing the goodies (including a jetpack) and unlocking the door leading to an area you may have visited earlier, you will need to use the Jetpack to fly to the vent, as you can't reach it by jumping. Then continue flying until reaching a room.
-Fourth, after reaching the room, kill the troopers/enforcers and collect various goodies, including the map's only Shrinker!
-Fifth, the actual secret is located behind the shelf in the room mentioned above. After opening the shelf by pressing on it, you can find inside 3x Eggs and 2x Expander Ammo.
Overall, this was a really nice map and the secrets were quite creative. Looking forward to the other maps!
Go Back Home
Stephano's first map is a bit rough around the edges. Besides the lack of difficulty settings that persists for all rest of the author's maps (though not a big problem for people who often play on CGS but it can hurt newbies who only play on easier skill settings), this map lacks polish in some areas. It has some oversized rooms and there are some bland corridors but I think for a first map this wasn't too bad. The music included is also pretty nice.
Gameplay wise, the map is not too difficult and gives you plenty of resources to make it through after getting through the initial challenging rooms, so I think the balance is pretty spot on. All weapons (except Trip Mines) are available, as well as plenty of health and armor pickups to make it through (and even a few water fountains as well).
An interesting thing to note is that many enemies have various palettes applied to them. This isn't a problem this time due to the map being made for the Atomic Edition, so this means the enemies have normal health as intended. If this map was made for original v1.3D release and played in that executable, then it would have been a problem due to the paletted monsters having double health, which is a feature that only exists in the original v1.3D release (and also certain EDuke32 builds from around 2013-2014).
Another interesting thing is that you will occasionally find a "D" box meal in some of the author's maps (and even the original Duke-Burger map and many other custom maps). Break the box to obtain an Atomic Health.
The only thing I don't understand is why is the exit available before using any cards. It makes the keycard aspect completely optional but if you want to get all kills and secrets, ignore the exit for now and just explore the buildings first.
There are SIX secrets to find:
1) At the start, after breaking the vent and killing the Pig Cop, press on the wall to reveal a Shotgun and ammo for it.
2) In the room containing Red Card, press on the book shelf to reveal Shrinker + both ammo types (crystal and expander) and a small medkit.
3) In the building that requires Red Card to enter, after taking out the Mini Battlelord and other aliens, jump behind the counter (look for nearby
THANKS FOR SHOPPING WITH US sign) and press the wall. Inside, you should find two ladies in the bed and a trash can nearby. Break the trash can to obtain a Freezethrower.
4) When entering the Hotel that requires the Blue Card to enter, after taking out the elevator and various aliens, look for a darkened wall to open. Inside you will find a Freezethrower.
5) In the corridor that leads to a room containing the Yellow Card, press the wall on the right side. Inside you will find a flashing room with a trooper and pig cop, as well as RPG, Armor and Portable Medkit.
6) Inside secret #5, open the wall in the middle to obtain a Pistol, Shotgun and a Small Medkit.
Overall, the map may have been a bit meh but gameplay was quite good and the effort for being the author's first map is still appreciated.
Fight For Life
A remake of Reginukem's previous release,
Emergency Room. It's okay, I didn't mind playing it and it was fun to spot the similarities between the two maps.
I only died once from the blue barrel because I kicked it and the whole room exploded, taking me down instantly from 85 hp to 0. Oh well, that's what I get for kicking the barrel, although I didn't expect the whole room to explode (also a bit of trivia, the barrels in Duke3D aren't as deadly as the ones in Doom, considering in the former they do like 20 damage but in the latter they do like 128 damage). Oh yeah, unlike
Emergency Room, this map doesn't give you the armor right away but you get a water fountain near the hospital entrance (funny, the hospital is named after the legendary Levelord) and there are plenty of health packs to keep you alive, so the lack of an early armor isn't too bad here but you should eventually find one armor pickup at a later time and then the health/armor situation is mostly resolved for the rest of the map, although you need to pay attention for the occasional enemy spawns at various points.
I'm not going to talk about the entire map and the differences compared to Emergency Room but instead, here is the secrets guide, including a few unofficial ones:
1) Near the radiology and next to a bathroom, there is a red trooper sitting and an armor pickup. Press on the wall to collect a Devastator.
2) Before entering the saloon that leads to the bathroom containing the Blue Card, there is a door you can open and lead to a metal corridor. Look for a darkened wall to open. Inside, you can find a monitor, 2x Tripmines (weapon), Armor and Holoduke.
3) Blow up the crack in the bathroom containing the Blue Card. Inside, you can find TWO Commanders and various goodies: Devastator + ammo, NVGs, Armor and 2x ammo for RPG. I recommend blowing up the crack after first dealing with the enforcers that ambush you upon collecting the Blue card, otherwise you will get ambushed while fighting the Commanders.
Unofficial secrets:
-Inside the saloon leading to the bathroom with blue card, there is a door you can open, which has a Commander and Freezer inside. Open the panel to collect 2x Atomic Health, Armor and Shrinker ammo.
-Collect the jetpack from third secret and go back to the start, where exit is also located after using the red card. Use the jetpack to fly and collect Devastator + ammo.
Overall, while I preferred the older version of this map (aka Emergency Room), I don't think this was a bad map at all. It was pretty decent and there is a lot of fun to be had.
Jungle Tour
Stephano brings us the first of the Jungle Tour series. And it's...eh, it could be better. It was more annoying compared to the author's previous map and you have to navigate the jungle in order to reach some military base. While there are a few points of no return, you are given THREE Jetpacks in total in the map, so you can backtrack at any time as long as you maintain the jetpack fuel. In fact, the Jetpack is also required for progression and having it is very handy for some backtracking if you missed a certain early room that contained the map's only RPG, like I did.
Gameplay wise, it's decent and there is some challenge early on but once you pick up the shotgun and reach the water fountain, you will also find the first armor pickup and the chaingun, then afterwards you will have more than enough supplies for the rest of the map.
Progression can be a bit confusing, like the Yellow card is at the bottom of the well which also contains a jetpack that allows you to escape in case you didn't collect a jetpack earlier. I had to be careful here to collect the card without the second jetpack because I'm not throwing away a jetpack at 90% fuel or so for nothing. The yellow card will be used to unlock the base, which must be reached by flying and finding a cave nearby. Afterwards, the map will be mostly straightforward, so you will not get lost, hopefully.
Unfortunately, I died once near the end because...I got squished by a door. Yeah, I know it was kinda lame and unexpected but that's Build Engine for you. So close to beat this map without dying!
Anyway, to unlock the door that leads to the Blue Card that leads to the last part of the map, you must find a few hidden switches in order to unlock the door. The switches are located in some of the earlier rooms in the main corridor, just check every corner inside each office and you should spot them. I think there's about three switches to be found.
After you got the Blue Card and unlocked the way to the exit, you can choose to backtrack for more goodies/secrets if you want and still have plenty of Jetpack fuel if used wisely. I certainly had to backtrack because it turns out I didn't check a room in the early parts of the map, which contained the map's RPG and the last few enemies. But don't worry, there aren't points where you need to use explosives to progress (besides throwing a pipebomb to blow up a hidden crack that leads to a secret place). The map is completable by just using the weapons 2-4 against the monsters, since you are given sufficient amount of ammo to deal with them.
There are SEVEN secrets to find (first four are found around the canyon areas):
1) In the large canyon room, fly with the jetpack to find a Trooper, a Shotgun and a box of Pipebombs.
2) After dropping down the first waterfall (where the water fountain is located and the door leading to the only RPG), look for RPG ammo hidden around the wall.
3) Before dropping down the second waterfall that leads to secret #4, after taking out the turrets, look for an armor hidden around the wall.
4) Drop down the waterfall, collect the stray pipebomb and blow up a hard-to-see crack (just aim at the tree and the crack will be blown). Inside you can find a cave with a Jetpack near the dead Octabrain, as well as two Octabrains guarding an Atomic Health.
5) In the bathroom, jump to the vents and you should find a small room containing a pistol and a small medkit.
6) In the alien room, near the machine where you find a hidden Freezethrower, jump through the barely visible fake wall to find a Shrinker + 2x ammo.
7) In the next room that leads to the kitchen and manager's office, press on the wall near the trash can to reveal a small room containing 2x Freezer ammo.
Overall, the map may be a bit amateurish but the gameplay isn't too bad and I like the exploration based aspect of the map, especially the generosity with the jetpacks (if you spend the fuel wisely, you will not need two other jetpacks). Hopefully the next two maps in the series will be better.
Have a nice weekend!
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